April 27, 2005
| Leading up to the Texas A&M Men's Golf team's trip to Trinity, Texas for the Big 12 tournament, AggieAthletics.com sat down with head coach J.T. Higgins to hear his thoughts on the the course, the competition, and his team's confidence. Can you discuss what Whispering Pines offers strategy-wise and the weaknesses and strengths your team will have with its layout?
Whispering Pines was designed by Jack Nicklaus, and Chet Williams was the lead architect, both of whom designed our home course, Traditions. It is similar in its length and demands off the tee but there are not many similarities around greens. I think we are very strong off the tee so that is a plus for us, but to be successful we are going to have to be much better on our approach shots and wedges. Our putting is another strength that should help us on this course as the greens are in great shape and running very fast. Does being host of the tournament make any difference for your team since the host course cannot be played for a full year in advance? Playing host is more in terms of administration than any type of "home course advantage." For some teams, it might even be a detriment because the coach would have to help run the tournament instead of coaching his team, but for us we have a great staff led by Mike Caruso that will take care of all the operations and details and we just have to go out and play. You said after the Aggie Invitational a few weeks ago that you felt your team had pressed too much which accounted for the disappointing 10th place finish. How are you going about keeping the guys from doing the same this weekend? We have worked hard on some relaxation techniques and really just tried to address the issue. We cannot win the tournament on the first day so it just doesn't make any sense to press and make it any tougher than it already is. So far this season whenever we have recognized a problem and addressed it, we have been able to correct it, move forward and improve. I think we will be fine and probably surprise a lot of people with how much better we play this week after our performance at home last week. This is a resilient group and I have been very pleased with their ability to come back from adversity all season. What practice areas and focal points have you been stressing leading up to the conference tournament?
We have been working very hard on two things since the Aggie Invitational. The first is wedges. For us to be successful in the post season, we need to be money with the wedges. We have to take advantage of our length and convert our great ability off the tee into birdies and we have not been doing that lately. We have worked very hard on improving our wedge game and giving ourselves birdie opportunities. The second is our approach shots in general. As a team, we have been very successful and competitive when we hit 60% of our greens in regulation and had our worst finishes when that number dips below 60%. For example, at the Aggie Invitational, we hit 80% of the fairways off the tee - that is a great percentage - but we only hit 51% of our greens in regulation. Those are missed opportunities and regardless of how good our short games are, it is impossible to score well when you only hit 50% of your greens. Can you talk a little about the strength of the men's golf programs in this conference? Our conference is extremely deep, especially in the South. Oklahoma State is the #1 team in the nation and even though they have won nine national championships, this may be the best team they have ever had. Texas has won the conference three straight years. Oklahoma is always good and Baylor and Texas Tech have both had really good seasons. In the North, Kansas is by far the best team and should be very competitive next week. Oklahoma State is obviously the front-runner going into this thing. What will your team have to do to stay up there in the pack and compete for a chance to win on the third day? The most important thing for us to do is stay patient early in the tournament. We have shown the ability to play with anyone in the nation at times this season and we are usually a very strong finishing team, so if we can keep it close early and give ourselves a chance to win on Sunday, you never know what might happen. Oklahoma State is a great team and it is going to take the 4 P's - great patience, persistence, poise and pride - for us to beat them. What are your feelings about having such a young team and knowing that they are going to have to play "older" and step up for such a big tournament? I love our team. We are young and we have our moments, there is no doubt about that, but they are enthusiastic and they work hard to improve every day. With that said, we are going with our "oldest" lineup - one senior, two juniors and two freshmen and both freshmen have already played a lot of college golf. But because of our youth, it seems we are always learning lessons and I think we are all getting tired of learning and want to start seeing the rewards for all our hard work. I will tell you that I believe in these young men and their ability, and I know that there is a lot of success lying in front of them. It seems an uprising is taking place in the A&M golf programs with the new course, facilities, and the success of both the "Mo"morial and the Aggie Invitational. How will your performance this weekend and then possibly at regionals and nationals affect that surge? In our meetings we always say there is no going back. Last year we played great at the end of the year, finished 4th at the NCAA Central Regional and 14th in the NCAA Championships. It was our first trip to the finals since 1997, and we were thrilled with that success. But to us it is just the beginning, and our plans are to keep on getting better. I believe that performance helped us in our recruiting this year and this year's post-season will have a big impact on next year's recruiting. Last year's team set the bar and it is up to this year's team to raise that standard even higher. There is no going back. What is your goal for this weekend and the days beyond? Our goal for the conference championship is the same as any other tournament we play throughout the year - have a chance to win going into the final round. Obviously, we want to be Big 12 Champions - it is why we play, but I am much more concerned with the process than the results. If we do everything right, the results will take care of themselves. |
